10 Combinations of Things that Cost the Same as 1 Kindle Oasis

Yesterday while working on the Samsung Galaxy Tab comparison review, it occurred to me that I paid about $50 less for both the Galaxy Tab A and the Galaxy Tab E Lite than I paid for the Kindle Oasis.

Then I realized I also paid about $75 less for the Toshiba laptop I was using that I purchased a couple years ago from Best Buy on sale.

So that got me thinking about all the crazy combinations of tablets and ereaders and electronic gadgets that you can get in this day and age for the price of one Kindle Oasis.

Considering the Kindle Oasis is a single use type of device that specializes is doing one thing well, it’s surprising how much of a higher value gets placed on it compared to other electronics.

The Kindle Oasis sells for $289, but that’s for the model with ads (they shouldn’t even have ads on the premium models anyway) so the real price is actually $309. And if you want “free” 3G add another $70 to the price.

So let’s take a look some of the things you can get for under $310, the cost of one Wi-Fi only Kindle Oasis:

1. Six Fire tablets ($49 each). Amazon used to offer a 6-pack deal for $250 but that seems to have gone away.

6. One 8-inch inkBook 8 ereader ($179) and one Nook GlowLight Plus ($129). The Kobo Glo HD would be better for most people but I had to throw the Nook in here somewhere…

7. One 8-inch Onyx Boox i86 ($285) Android-powered ereader with frontlight and high resolution screen and one portable charger ($19). The “what could have been” bundle if Amazon would’ve released an 8-inch Kindle Oasis instead of another 6-inch device with an odd battery-charging cover.

I would assume they got sufficient demand. I think there is a proportion of Kindle devotees and those seeking a ‘luxury’ e-reader that would purchase the Oasis.In terms of pricing, why should a high-end smartphone cost more than an e-reader? Some might say use value but for others, the e-reader is more important and it this bracket of customers that Amazon is selling this Kindle.

You can do the same exercise with any brand name premium brand product. Thing of all the things you could buy for the price of a Corvette, Viper, Tesla, or a Mercedes. To ssy nothing of Porsches or Ferrari.

Doesn’t stop them from selling.

Or, closer to home: think cameras. Most people get by with their cellphone cameras just fine. That doesn’t stop people from spending hundreds of dollars on consumer-grade cameras or, in the case of hobbyist Prosumer models, for thousands of dollars.

Or, if you like working with numbers, consider that the Kindle customer base (all the people buying ebooks from them at one time or another) runs well north of 50M. If only the top 1% of Kindle ebook buyers like the Oasis enough to splurge (as a gift or to treat themselves) Amazon can sell over a half million of them. (Remember the original “limited edition 6.8” Kobos? That was a batch of 350K they got their hands on.)

A half million Oasis sales will add up to over US$1.5 Billion. I suspect Amazon can probably sell double that in a year or so.

Amazon is going to walk away from that kind of money just because it might offend the sensibilities of vegans or budget watchers? Last I heard, one-percenters money was as good as anybody’s. 😉

There’s plenty of room in the market, any market, for premium priced products. (Look into iPhone sales among the poor all over the world. For many, many people an iPhone is the one luxury item they own. Even when it costs them months of income. Or look to name brand sneakers.)

It doesn’t hurt a company to carry a low volume premium model so long as they understand it is going to be a (relatively) low volume seller. Where companies run into trouble, like Sony did in ereaders, is when the premium priced models are their *only* model.

Amazon already is well represented in the entry level and mainstream ereader segments so why the angst over Oasis pricing? It’s not a product for me and it might not be a product for you but that doesn’t mean it not going to sell to somebody…

I don’t think people have a problem with the premium pricing model. I think what it comes down to is that most people have a hard time considering the Kindle Oasis a premium device when it has the same screen, the same processor, the same memory, the same software, the same everything except a new design and a questionable charging cover. Sure, it has buttons and an accelerometer—both of which were on Kindles 5 years ago—and now somehow that’s premium. 🙂

The car analogy is good but the Oasis is more like a kit car than a premium high-end Ferrari. It has a new look and a new shell but underneath it’s still the same Toyota Camry as the Kindle Paperwhite.

It’s a combination of the eink reader market as a small niche market and frankly a lack of competition. Amazon has cornered the small eink reader market and there’s really not much need to innovate. The Oasis is the result.

Precisely why monopolies are bad for consumers. If it wasnt for Kobo releasing the glow HD at 300 ppi , Amazon would perhaps never released a 300ppi Paperwhite and drastically undercut the Kindle Voyage, hurting sales.
Something tells me Kobo will release a new eReader soon with 10 led lights and page turn buttons under $150 this year and Amazon will have to once again react and respond by doing the same and drastically undercut the Oasis. That wouldn’t surprise me at all.

It was a made up rumor (just like all the rumors they make up to get pageviews) so I wouldn’t put any stock in it. If by coincidence Kobo does release something new they would have to announce it within a week if they want to get it out and delivered by Mother’s Day, especially since their shipping is on the slower side.